Like George Harrison or Krishna Das, bhakti yoga instructor David Newman (aka Durga Das) merges the personal and transcendental into mellow back porch chants/songs that are part loving autobiography and part mellow interpretations of ancient kirtans. On Stars he is joined on many tracks by Mira, his wife and fellow recording artist. With a softly sparkling light that never wavers but only slowly expands, Stars may at first seem like a ’70s folk record, but ends up something glorious and altogether more profound. Cementing the karmic resonance of the affair, proceeds benefit Peter Gabriel's human rights organization WITNESS.

Written for Mira when she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, "Dreaming" uses slide guitar and a clattering tambourine as Newman’s husky near whisper of a croon comes out like he's right across the campfire and the grace comes flooding from his voice and fingers. The lyrics not written by Newman are millennia-old while the guitar and instruments recall past decades, rooting the listener to the eternal—to what survives after death, what has never been afraid to let go when all the artificiality has turned to dust and decay.

While songs like "Dreaming" and "Tulsi’s Bliss" (the name of their newborn child; her giggling is heard on the track) celebrate incoming life, on "Thinking of You / Sri Krishna" there is mourning for a passing friend. This is far from a sad song, even though Newman's voice brings much emotion. With ukulele and shaker his only accompaniment at first, Mira joins him after a verse, and a gradual life-affirming singsong melody takes shape ("Be strong / Be beautiful / I'm thinking of you"). Fnally it all explodes into a rapturous sing-along ode to Krishna.

Newman warns that "this album may cause open-heartedness, optimism, gratitude, unconditional love, abiding happiness, tears of joy, inner peace...." Whether with hazy slide guitars in the title track or the harmonious flow of Mira and David's voices during the beautiful choruses—or even occasional spoken word passages (as in "We are what we are")—those tears of joy are bound to come. As Newman sings on the title track, "We are as stars / Stars in the sky / The darker this night / The brighter we will shine." With sales helping WITNESS, just getting the album will make the long night a little more sparkling.